Art Crossing
Rome
Appian Way Park
Santa Maria Nova
OCTOBER 2022
JUNE 2022
Giulio Bensasson
Flavio Favelli
Diego Miguel Mirabella
Lulu Nuti
Alessandro Piangiamore
Namsal Siedlecki
For a contemporary artist, the methods of creating a work within an archaeological site can be different and more or less effective, but the artist rarely manages to enter the heart of his Genius Loci.
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His works are often - but not always - a sort of "foreign bodies" detached from nature and the profound meaning of the context. To reflect on this theme and offer artists the opportunity to be able to dialogue on the same level with the archaeologists of the Appia Antica park, according to the curatorial methods of Spazio Taverna, which provide for the contamination between different professionals, the Art Crossing project has created the conditions for developing a real dialogue and collaboration between the archaeologists responsible for the site and the invited artists.
The works are the result of the work of the 6 artists invited to the exhibition: Flavio Favelli, Diego Miguel Mirabella, Lulù Nuti, Giulio Bensasson, Alessandro Piangiamore and Namsal Siedlecki. Artists of different generations who have proposed different visions and interpretations of the historical, imaginative and archaeological material of the park.
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Flavio Favelli and Diego Miguel Mirabella reinterpret the concept of ruin by creating works that rewrite and reinterpret the traditional narratives of the Park. Favelli adds a work of modern archeology to the Roman and medieval ruins: it is a large panel, painted with labels of an Appia mineral water, Appia Pack soft drinks and Alitalia Palmolive.
Mirabella presents a travertine slab on which are engraved with laser technology maps of crossroads of decorations that tell the story of the borders of the Roman empire. Piangiamore works within the museum complex of Santa Maria Nova in close contact with the finds, installing seven crystal sculptures animated by lights and modified by remote control which randomly establishes their color and intensity.
Nuti's work reproduces a sunflower through a micro ceramic mould. The human-sized sculpture is set up with a sensor that recognizes the presence of the visitor, rotating to follow him as if he were his own sun.
Bensasson presents a column placed on a pedestal three meters high, composed of flowers and wax instead of marble, designing a ruin destined to decay.
Finally Siedlecki reflects on the process of transformation of matter from organic to inorganic, presenting glass relics made with the ashes of a cremated wolf.
Thanks to these works, the artists assume the responsibility of relating to the cumbersome weight of history and archeology within the city of Rome, entering into resonance with a millenary place to give it back a function